Free to Play players cannot insert items into a trade, however, a Premium player can indeed give items to a Free to Play player; only items found by Free to Play are subjected to the untradable issues.

The Steam Trading system can be slow at times; try again later, or simply close the game and try again. There are issues, and really, I'm not too sure on how to solve yours; check if you have trades open, restart Steam... That's pretty much all I can suggest; I can't really suggest anything else, but I wish you the best of luck.

Are you sure about that, World? I heard that Premium players can indeed give items to Free to Play players, and I've seen some people who claim to be Free to Play with items that can be traded; that would lead me to believe they can indeed receive items.

Free to Play players cannot insert items into a trade, however, a Premium player can indeed give items to a Free to Play player; only items found by Free to Play are subjected to the untradable issues.

The Steam Trading system can be slow at times; try again later, or simply close the game and try again. There are issues, and really, I'm not too sure on how to solve yours; check if you have trades open, restart Steam... That's pretty much all I can suggest; I can't really suggest anything else, but I wish you the best of luck.

Are you sure about that, World? I heard that Premium players can indeed give items to Free to Play players, and I've seen some people who claim to be Free to Play with items that can be traded; that would lead me to believe they can indeed receive items.

Just to clarify, I decided to check the Team Fortress 2 Official Wiki, as I was uncertain about the exact restrictions on Free to Play trades; according to the Wiki, "In addition to this, the player can only receive items through trading and cannot send items through trading.".

I believe this solidifies that you can indeed receive items from a Premium player, and so I assume it's simply the trade mechanic having some sort of errors somewhere; whether it be on your end, with your friend or the Steam system itself, I do not know. At some point, it will hopefully fix itself, and so I'm certain you'll eventually be able to obtain the items your friend wishes to give you.

Are you sure about that, World? I heard that Premium players can indeed give items to Free to Play players, and I've seen some people who claim to be Free to Play with items that can be traded; that would lead me to believe they can indeed receive items.

Premium players can give items to a F2P player. (I've done it many times)A F2P player can only trade away items that have been traded to them. They cannot trade their dropped items (There are exceptions to that rule, some tool drops can be traded by a F2P player)